Page 44 of Demon's Desire

“No.” She shook her head. “No more than usual. I was wondering if you could help me with something in my apartment.”

“Oh… Well, I’ve got some… things I’m trying to deal with at the moment, actually.” I pursed my lips. “I’m really sorry.”

“What are you doing?” she pried.

“Um… You know what, it’s actually not that important,” I said quickly, not wanting to explain. Making up a lie for my nosy neighbor seemed like more effort than it was worth. “What do you need?

“I just need some boxes moved, but I’m trying not to bend over too much,” she explained as she turned around and started heading for the stairs.

I turned back to Suldeargan and mouthed to him, ‘Do not follow me.’

Of course, he smirked and started walking behind me, anyway. I glared and started to shut the door, but he yanked it out of my grasp and stepped out into the hall before shutting it himself.

I narrowed my gaze at him before following her. “So what are you doing with the boxes? Just from one room to another?”

“Well, if it’s possible, I need them moved to my car,” she explained as she reached her room and opened the door. The smell of incense hit me like a wall when the door opened. Still, I didn’t react. It smelled good. It was just overwhelming. I followed her through the apartment. It was identical to ours. She led me to the spare room, the one we’d turned into Kelly’s room in our apartment. I was painfully aware of Suldeargan’s footsteps behind me, terrified that they would make noise she could hear.

Her apartment was absolutely immaculate. I didn’t think there was a speck of dust in any of the rooms. All her furniture was muted and beige with pretty floral patterns, and she had family photos covering the walls almost edge to edge. The photos made me nervous. I was suspicious of Suldeargan after our last conversation, and all the glass made me anxious.

“Who are in all the pictures?” I asked as we walked. “Your kids?”

“Oh, no.” Helen shook her head. “I don’t have kids. Never bothered. Never met someone to settle down with. Even if I had, she wouldn’t have been able to get me pregnant.” She laughed at her own joke.

“Oh!” I blinked. “I didn’t realize you were… Do you use the word gay? Or…”

“Lesbian isn’t a bad word.” She chuckled as she opened the door to the spare room. “I’m a lesbian. Have been since I was born. But we can talk about that later. For now…”

When she moved, I saw at least two dozen boxes in the room, all stacked as tall as I was. At the very least, they were the size of milk crates rather than full sized packing boxes like the ones we’d moved with. They were mostly full of papers and a few trinkets.

“Wow.” I stepped into the room, looking around. “Your apartment is so neat. I'm surprised you have any clutter at all!”

Suldeargan walked in after me. I turned and kept an eye on him, trying not to seem too suspicious to Helen.

“I hide it all pretty well.” She patted one of the piles of papers. “Lot of it came from my sister. She kept every piece of paper she ever touched. Now she’s gone, and her husband needs to go through all of it, make sure there’s nothing important.”

I paused when she said that and frowned slightly. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Helen shrugged and waved her hand. “It was a while ago. I just haven’t had the motivation to clean this out yet. Today, I woke up and… Well, now you’re here! Obviously, this is too much, but if you wouldn’t mind doing a few, just whatever you can–”

I jumped as something thudded behind me. I saw Suldeargan standing against the wall with a few of the photos on the ground beside him. Thank goodness she had plush rugs in the room so nothing broke. I glared at him as Helen walked past me to go get them.

“Let me,” I said, bending over and picking up the two frames. “You don’t need to be bending over, right?”

“Oh, yes,” she muttered, taking them and slowly hanging them up. I noticed something was slightly different, though. She suddenly seemed a bit more… distant than she had been.

“Are you all right, Helen?” I asked, moving up to stand beside her as Suldeargan stood in the corner, watching us.

She sighed as she put the second picture up. “Things like this have been happening for the past few weeks, but… they got worse a week ago. I don’t like it.”

I tensed and glanced at Suldeargan. “You said you think it’s… demons? Right?”

“Spirits of some kind.” Helen shook her head. “I don’t know what they want or why they won’t leave us alone. You know, I don’t tell many people this cause they think I’m looney. But before Nellie passed, my sister, she was possessed.”

Suldeargan suddenly looked as shocked at that as I did.

“Um… How do you know?” I frowned.

“You just know.” She shrugged as she turned to look at me. “She was saying things she’d never have said, forgetting things she’d never ever forget, doing these dangerous things… I took her to all the doctors I could find, but they all said she didn’t have anything wrong. At least none of the diseases that make you forget things. But when we took her to the doctors, they found breast cancer. So… I don’t know. Maybe it was a blessing. If it weren’t for the spirits, we wouldn’t have known she was sick. But… even then, sometimes I wonder if it was the spirits that made her sick in the first place.”